Fio

This is my friend and struggling English student, Fio. She’s a nurse at the heart clinic and for the life of her, cannot pronounce words with ‘th’ in them. 

No Smoking

This is called: Covering your bases

We’ve got 2 Don Won Ton originals here today. Juan was kind enough to take requests and after drawing the turtle in under 5 minutes, I asked for a zombie fighting a mummy. They were free, and I guess you really do get what you pay for. 

ITA info about AQP, Peru

(International TEFL Academy)

I answered a questionnaire about teaching/living in Arequipa, Peru, so if you have any questions, this just about sums up every aspect of Arequipa.

Fun Fact: The picture of me at the beach was taken in Arica, Chile. Besides the casino, there isn’t too much else. 

Last Day of Work

Good morning! Or good night? If you picked sunset, consider yourself the big winner

FIN!

After completing a full year, today was my last day at Extreme English. I’ll be here for the month of February, teaching private classes and practicing my Muay Thai/Boxing, and then off to Machu Picchu in March with the rents. It’s been a long and interesting year, that’s for sure. I’ve met a lot of real cool people from all over the world and I hope to see you all again in the future. I can’t say it enough; Peru is a super cool country. I have 1 more month to enjoy South America and I’ll certainly take advantage of my time off. 

Nicknaming

Student (Rain Man): What am I supposed to call you: Mr. Hill, Degen, teacher…?

Degen: Call me “El Tigre”

Gumby

We’ve got a special post today. Ladies, I’d like to introduce you all to my student, Juan. He discovered my blog and proceeded to laugh and tell me that no one reads it. So to all those ladies out there that are interested and clearly not reading this blog, don’t hesitate another minute! He goes by the name, “Señor Don Juan Ton” or “Gumbi” due to his gangly stature. 

Juan: I told you I’d post this

Trip of a lifetime...

I had my students write travel advertisements and here was the winner:

Have you ever wanted to see paradise on earth, also known as Pyongyang, North Korea? If you sign up now, you can be one of the 1st hundred people to say, “I love North Korea!” One lucky winner will even have a private lunch on the grave of Kim Jong-Il. Don’t wait another second! Call 1-800-IheartNK to reserve your spot now!

This kid had me cracking up this morning. 

Word of the day...

What do you call people who take charge of things?

Student: Leadershippers

I’ll take it

Gustavo

"If I commanded a city, I would forbid reggaeton. In bars, in public, it would even be illegal to have on your ipod. Reggaeton is stupid and I hate it. Oh what music do I like? I like heavy metal Catholic rock." - Gustavo (a student), after being asked what he would do if he were in charge of a city. I hope he never gets elected into office.

English Comic

First, this is not my class. Second, there are mistakes, it was written by a Peruvian learning English, what do you expect? Hilarity of course,

One day Katty was walking on the park, then she saw Carlos, but he was sad.

She invited him a icecream and they started to talk about yours btes. So she discovered that Carlos was sad because his mom traveled to U.S.A.

She tried help him, but he was very sad, so she invited him to amusement park and they played all the afternoon. 

Then they return to home of Katty and on the street a car crash them and they died. 

Come on Google

I just don’t know anymore. 

And so it begins...

First rain in Arequipa since March. After having spent 4 years in college in Washington State, it’s a welcoming site. 

My classroom dynamic has drastically changed after a 46 year old engineer enrolled in my class of 20 year olds. He is all business, which means I will have to keep the slang to a minimum. I’m sure he isn’t too interested in learning words like, “Stoked” and “What’s crack-a-lacken?" 

Oh look, a gringo!

Got invited to a birthday party last night and I accepted, thinking it would be at most 20 people. Nope. There was a dj, lights, fog machine, full free bar, couch areas in the backyard and more food than was necessary. Of course, I was the only ‘gringo’ which means that everyone and their mom wanted to speak their broken English with me. So I politely put up with 5 minute stories that could have been explained in a sentence, then courteously asked if we could continue the conversation in Spanish. 

This happens quite frequently and the worst offenders are the taxi drivers. This is how most of my taxi rides go. 
“Where you from gringo?”

“States dude”

“Oh you speak Inglish?”

“Ah, once in awhile”

“Oh me too, mira: One, too, tree, foooor, five!!” Then they start laughing

“Wow, impressive” And then I just start babbling in English until they look confused enough to stop talking. Never fails. 

Spanglish?

For as proud a people as Peruvians are, they certainly use a lot of English in their everyday speech. Here’s the list:

1. Twist off - For bottles

2. Full - As in ‘lleno’ or a lot of something

3. Trailer - For movies

4. Crazy - Loco

5. Hello - Usually when answering the phone

6. Brother - What happened to 'hermano’?

7. Watch-i-man - Name used for a guard or a 'watchman’

8. Gay

9. Spoiler - Telling someone about a movie

10. Laptop

11. Fan - Aficionado

When I need to ask for an American brand name item, I find myself having to use a Spanish accent. Such as Facebook, Twitter, Coca Cola, names of bars (Frogs, Wild Rover), names of US states, and names of sport equipment (Nike is pronounced like 'mike’). Living abroad has never been so linguistically interesting. 

High hopes..

Me:What do we use our minds for?
Student 1:To make decisions
Student 2:To think
Student 3:Telekinesis, like in X-Men
Me:You do know that X-Men aren't real right?

Google Fail

For some reason, I don’t think Google translate is quite cutting it…

So Tipical

Tipical Food - Tipical spelling

Went as Goose from Top Gun last night for Halloween. Peruvian girls said, “Oh my god you’re like Tom Cruises best friend from that one movie” and Americans just yelled, “TOP GUN!!!!!” So basically it was a win-win last night.

Nailed it

Me:Some cities are over crowded and there is no space. How can we fix this?
Student:Make the buildings taller

Not that it needs to be said, but spelling isn’t a strong suit here in Peru. For example, in Spanish, the ‘B’ and 'V’ are pronounced the same. So on a daily basis, I will see signs for “Cebiche” and “Ceviche”. Which is of course raw seafood with limes and other things. Some free advice, don’t eat Ceviche from a street vendor, spend that 10 extra soles and get yourself to a restaurant with minimum hygienic standards.

Spelling in Peru: Weak. But boy oh boy, I sure do love me a good sandwish.